


6 Inch

by steggyisimmortal



Series: Shield and Gun [22]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: AU, F/M, Gen, also part of my Dirty Dancing AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-09 03:03:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11095548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steggyisimmortal/pseuds/steggyisimmortal
Summary: She grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the corner of the room.“St – Steve.  My name’s Steve.”Peggy didn’t answer, just continued to lead him out to the dance floor.  He could feel his palms sweating and prayed she didn’t notice.





	6 Inch

**Author's Note:**

> Plot inspired by the line:  
>  _"She walked in the club like nobody's business. Goddamn, she murdered everybody and I was her witness."_
> 
> Also a part of my Dirty Dancing AU but this can stand by itself if you don't want to read that.

* * *

“Hey ma? I’m goin’ for a walk. I’ll be back later.”

Steve barely heard his mother’s acknowledging call before the door slammed shut behind him. 

He didn’t know where he was going but that didn’t bother him. He just needed to get out of the cabin. He loved his ma and sister but he craved time by himself to clear his head. Going from a small apartment together to a slightly larger cabin together didn’t seem like much of a vacation to him. 

It was his first time away from the city. He’d never been farther north than Harlem. The vibrant colors of nature left him in awe. He enjoyed going to Central Park when he could, to sit among the trees and grass and rocks, listening to the birds and the sounds of children playing. Central Park didn’t hold a candle to the lodge’s property though. 

When he was younger, Steve wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the experience properly but Doctor Erskine had taken care of that a couple years back. Now there wasn’t a single experience he took for granted.

He mentally groaned when he saw the amount of people headed towards the main hall and made a move to a different trail to the right. The family’s cabin was situated in the center of property, close enough to the main buildings but just far enough to feel private. It was nice of Mr. Phillips to treat them so graciously, giving them his best cabin for six weeks. He seemed like a good man. Steve was thankful for that if he was to spend almost every day with the man following him around to learn the business.

Steve sighed to himself. He didn’t want to learn the business but he didn’t know how to bring it up to anyone. He was afraid to. He never knew what profession he wanted to choose when he was growing up. He always thought he never had many options; his health had never left him with much optimism for his future. 

He’d grown up poor. They still were really. His ma was a nurse who was at work most of the time and his pop had worked long hours in a factory before his death. Steve never thought he’d get to go to college but Erskine’s procedure had left him well enough to procure a job working for the paper.

He got up early to deliver it around Brooklyn and occasionally he submitted drawings to his boss. If he liked them, Steve got paid a little extra and his art went in the paper. He still remembered his shock when he realized he had enough money to pay for school. 

Too bad it had been wasted on a topic Steve quickly realized he was never going to like. 

His ma had been so proud and she kept going on and on about how happy Joe would have been of his son for graduating. She was so happy Steve was going to end up with a better future than her and her husband. His ma’s words had echoed loudly around his brain every day while he was in lecture after lecture listening to the droning of his professors, thinking about quitting but knowing he couldn’t. 

So he’d been a good boy and learned everything he could but his heart had never been in it. 

As much as Steve wanted to say no to shadowing Phillips, that he didn’t want to pursue business management, he didn’t know what he’d do in its place.

This time he groaned aloud, scrubbing a hand across his face. 

He looked around, trying to figure out where he was but he didn’t recognize the area. He saw a trail of lighting along the ground up ahead so he decided to head for that. He could hear music in the distance. It didn’t sound like the usual music the main hall played. It sounded a little more upbeat and modern. The kind of music kids in the city were listening to these days.

“Hey! How’d you get here?”

Steve turned to see the man from earlier carrying three exceptionally large watermelons. His accent was odd - standing out more now than earlier - a mix of New York and something Steve couldn’t place.

“I was taking a walk and then I heard the music from up there.”

“No one’s supposed to be over here. This is staff only. The old man would have a heart attack if he thought about guests seeing the squalid conditions the staff lives in.”

“I just wanted to see where the music was coming from.”

Michael came closer to Steve. He squinted his eyes while he scrutinized Steve, who willed himself to stay still. Finally he nodded to himself and handed Steve a watermelon.

“You look harmless enough,” he said. “Come on, Steve. I’ll take you up.”

* * *

Steve bit his lip in an effort not to laugh as Michael hip checked the door, almost losing his precious bounty in the process. Steve should have offered to carry two. Michael’s arms looked like chicken legs and the watermelons had been slowly sliding down his body for the last hundred feet.

His jaw dropped to the floor at the gyrating couples filling the room. He hesitated slightly, his feet frozen to the floor but incapable of looking away. He was vaguely aware of Michael walking in front of him, clearing a path so Steve could follow.

He’d never seen anything like it. Although that wasn’t saying much. He didn’t get out a lot. Bucky tried dragging him to places with girls but they never gave Steve the time of day so he always begged off. Girls noticed him more now that his physique had changed thanks to the procedure and his last bout of puberty, but he had to get up early for his route so he didn’t like to stay out late.

These couples – they were amazing. Steve could barely see a glimmer of light between any of their bodies.

“Where’d they learn to do this?” he asked Michael.

“At home, I guess.”

Steve mutely nodded. He mindlessly followed Michael through the crowded dance floor to deposit the watermelons on a long table.

He couldn’t tear his eyes away. Hips gyrating, shaking, rocking, grinding, thrusting. He felt his face flush. It all seemed like something they should be doing in private, not out in the open for anyone to see. They all seemed happy, though. Proud and uninhibited. Everything Steve wished he was outwardly. 

He’d asked a few girls to dance before but none of them had said yes so eventually he stopped trying. He had two left feet anyway. He figured he’d find the right partner one day.

“Can you imagine seein’ this on the main stage? Those old folks would have a stroke.”

A flash of blue caught his attention at the door. He stood up straighter to see over the sea of bodies in front of him.

It was her! The girl from earlier. 

He watched, transfixed, as she took the hand of a dark skinned man near the door and they moved into the center of the dance floor. He felt like he was watching Fred and Ginger glide across the floor albeit with a young, slightly dirty twist to it. They made it look so easy and effortless. Steve had never been so jealous of a man before. 

Michael nudged Steve. 

“That’s my cousin, Peggy Carter.”

“They look great together,” Steve said.

“Yeah,” Michael agreed. “You’d think they were a couple.”

Steve shot a look over at the man. “Aren’t they?”

“Nah, not for a couple years now.” Michael shook his head. “They’re better dance partners.”

“What about the guy she was dancing with earlier at dinner? That tall guy over there?”

Michael smiled a smile Steve couldn’t decipher. “No, she’s not seeing him either.”

Steve turned his attention back to the dancing couple. That was good news for him. If he ever found any courage to actually speak to a girl. 

But his eyes were glued to her all the same.

She glanced his way for a brief moment. Steve whipped his eyes away quickly, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself. He noticed he wasn’t her focus for long, though, because she turned her attention back to her partner. Steve watched the suggestive moves and lifts and jumps they performed, wishing he knew how to do that, too. 

She looked so vibrant and free, like every light in the room was shining only on her.

Steve was barely aware of the beginning of the next song. He only saw Peggy. 

Who was now walking directly towards him.

She hip checked Michael before nodding her chin towards Steve.

“What’s he doing here, Mikey?” Peggy asked. Steve was surprised to hear an English accent.

“He came up with me.”

“I carried a watermelon,” Steve blurted out.

Peggy rolled her eyes, clearly unimpressed, and walked away. 

Steve mentally slapped himself. “ _I carried a watermelon?”_ What kind of thing was that to say to a girl?! No wonder they never talked to him.

He was so busy berating himself over his choice of words he barely noticed someone standing in front of him. His eyes already downcast, he noticed the heels first. They were taller than the ones the other girls wore, he noticed, by a couple of inches. They were a shimmery silver color. He wondered how anyone could walk in those let alone dance.

His eyes trailed up the woman’s long legs. He noticed she wasn’t wearing stockings. His ma was always telling his sister not to go out without her stockings, that nice girls didn’t leave the house without them. This woman’s legs were toned, sturdy. Not that Steve knew any other sets of legs intimately enough to know the different types of legs but he thought those words described hers perfectly. She was a dancer, after all. 

His eyes found the familiar blue fabric of the dress he’d been fixed on for the better part of the evening. The dress he was positive he was going to have dreams about later. He’d already made a mental note to draw it as soon as he could. 

He tried to keep the blush from creeping over his face when he reached her breasts but he knew it was a lost cause. He quickly glanced over them and brought his eyes up to meet Peggy’s. She had her hands on her hips and fixed him with a smile. She seemed amused instead of angry but Steve could have been wrong about that. He was wrong about a lot of things when it came to women.

“Come on, Love Man.”

She grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the corner of the room.

“St – Steve. My name’s Steve.”

Peggy didn’t answer, just continued to lead him out to the dance floor. He could feel his palms sweating and prayed she didn’t notice. 

She tugged him around to stand in front of her. She bent her knees and instructed him to do the same. He did as he was told and watched as she started rolling her hips to the right. He copied her as best he could but he felt a bit like a nut being screwed onto a bolt incorrectly. He’d never felt more self-conscious in his life. Here he was dancing with the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen and he was making a fool of himself. He looked around at the other couples.

“Watch my eyes,” Peggy directed sternly. Steve did as he was told. “Good.”

She was smiling so he must have been doing something right. He smiled at her.

“That’s better,” she murmured. 

She drew their bodies closer together, one of her legs slipping in between his. Steve swallowed hard at the close contact. He focused on keeping the rhythm of his hips to match hers. 

“Good, now roll this way,” she instructed him.

Steve followed her movements. Later, when he was lying in bed, it would occur to him he had stared a little too much at her hips and he probably should have looked away out of respect. In the moment he was concentrating so hard that the only things he was really aware of were her words and the feel of her hands guiding him. Even the music felt distant and out of place. 

He must have been doing something right because she pulled them close again and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She was smiling at him and Steve couldn’t help but smile wildly in return. They danced in sync with one another, Steve matching her moves and keeping up with her. It wasn’t that hard now that he had the hang of it. It felt like swaying together but with their hips gyrating and rolling against each others. He was more than content to follow her lead in this dance.

Steve felt like his whole body was on fire. He never would have thought the guy with two left feet that every girl in Brooklyn ignored would be dancing this close with a beautiful girl. Woman, he mentally corrected. 

His ma would definitely not approve of this type of dancing. 

Peggy was still smiling at him as the song started to fade. They hadn’t dropped eye contact once since she put her arms around him. She had some of the most amazing eyes he’d ever seen. They were incredibly… Expressive. 

She spun in a circle as the song started to fade. Steve was so into the dance that he made a similar motion but when he spun back around she wasn’t there.

The smile dropped from his face as he looked around for her but he didn’t see her. The bodies filled in too much for him to see through the crowd. It seemed like there were more people now than there were earlier. He thought about calling her name but he doubted he’d be heard over the noise. He’d never wanted someone to like him more than he wanted her to give him any amount of attention she could spare. 

He always thought it was a cheesy thing to say but he felt like he was walking on a cloud all the way back to the cabin that night. 

* * *


End file.
